Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
This is the Sloan Sales Homes open House with Michelle Sloan,
Remax time agent and proprietor of Sloan Saleshomes dot Com.
You have questions, she.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Has the answers. This is your opportunity to learn from
one of the best and most trusted agents in the business.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
This is the Sloan Sales Homes open House with Michelle
Sloan on fifty five KRC the Talk Station.
Speaker 3 (00:30):
Welcome back. I'm so glad that you could join me today.
Today we're going to be talking about budgeting, budgeting for
home maintenance items. Whenever you hear the word budget, does
it send shivers down your spine. It does for me.
But when you buy a home, it is really important
for you to think about budgeting for home maintenance items.
(00:51):
And I have a list today that I think will
be extremely helpful. And a lot of people don't even
think about it. They just take those items as they come.
So if you have let's say the furnace breaks, well,
then you get the furnace fixed. Hopefully you have the
budget or at least a little bit of emergency fund
so that you can get your furnace fixed. But it
(01:13):
is important and very very smart. If you have a home,
you have a maintenance budget for your home, and you
have to be conscious of that because it is so
easy to forget. It is so easy to forget doing
those home maintenance items because they're not really the most
exciting or fun for anybody. The general rule of thumb,
(01:37):
the common guideline is to set aside between one and
two percent of your home's purchase price for maintenance items.
So if you have a three hundred thousand dollars home,
you want to go ahead and set aside between three
thousand and six thousand dollars. If you have a much
more expensive home, Bigger homes, bigger problems, bigger maintenance items,
(01:59):
so you want to go out head and set aside
a little bit more. Again, this is just a general
rule of thumb. It will depend on the location that
you live in, the age of your home, how good
of condition that it's in when you purchase it. All
of these things are going to contribute to whether or
not how much money you're going to be spending on
(02:21):
home maintenance. So we're going to go through some of
these home maintenance items and we're going to also talk
about how much each one costs on average per year,
and this is going to help us add that up
between three and six thousand dollars for the average home
in Cincinnati being around three hundred thousand dollars. Okay, so
that makes sense. The first thing is always your HVAC,
(02:43):
your heating and cooling system. It is the lifeline to
your home. And if you're not spending two to three
hundred dollars a year to get your furnace cleaned and
checked and making sure that you have all of the
filters that you need for your furnace, you could be
in for a much, much bigger problem, and a more
(03:06):
costly problem at that. So making sure that you are
again setting aside a little bit of money. The next
thing up roof repairs. Now, you may have a brand
new roof, Okay, you put in a bunch of money.
You put in thousands of dollars to put on a
new roof, So you may not have those maintenance items
or those maintenance issues for a couple of years after
(03:30):
the roof is installed, but you may have other roof
related situations that come up throughout the year, such as gutters.
Making sure that your gutters are attached to the house properly,
making sure that you're cleaning out the gutters, making sure
that all of those your gutters are clean and free
of leaves and debris. Just this last week, honestly, I
(03:53):
went to go see a home and it had trees
growing out of the gutters. The leaves have been packed.
The leaves and the little helicopters went ahead and started
to grow inside the gutters. That's going to create a
heaviness on those gutters. It's going to pull those gutters down.
It's going to cause a clog so water has no
(04:14):
place to go. It's going to back up into your home,
cause you additional issues and additional money as well. So
making sure that you're keeping an eye on your roof,
your gutters, the exterior of your home at all times
is extremely important. So today on the Sloan Sales Homes
open house, we are talking about home maintenance items and
(04:37):
budgeting for those home maintenance items so that you can
take a little bit of the surprise out of doing
these doing these kinds of updates to your home. It
is very important for you to continue to maintain your home.
It is the most expensive and the most rewarding purchase
(05:00):
that you'll ever make. But there are some downfalls or
there's some things that you need to think about as
you move forward. All right, so what's next on the list?
We have roof repairs. We did that one. So the
cost of roof repairs that you want to sort of
keep in mind in your budget anywhere between three hundred
and fifteen hundred dollars, again depending on the size of
(05:21):
your roof. All right, what about what's next? Landscaping and
lawn care. Now that's could actually the maintenance of your
lawn could cost you more. If you're hiring someone to
do your lawn maintenance, that's going to cost more. You're
going to have to budget more for that. Or maybe
(05:41):
you're sick and tired of mowing your lawn every week
and cleaning up the leaves at the end of the season.
Maybe you're going to think about in the new year
actually hiring somebody to take care of your landscaping. All right,
you may need to budget for that oftentimes. And so
this is just a general rule of thumb in the
Cincinnati area. If you hire somebody to take care of
(06:03):
your lawn, if you have an average sized lawn, let's
say less than a half acre, right, maybe a quarter
of an acre or a third of an acre. It'll
probably cost you about sixty dollars a week, could be less,
could be more to just mow your lawn on a
weekly basis, or even a bi weekly basis. So you
want to if you're budgeting fifty bucks a week, that's
(06:26):
going to add up. So you have to decide is
this important to me? Do I get that hour of
time back so that I'm not dealing with mowing? That
to me is one of those things that I'd rather
have my time back. I'm busy, you're busy. Do you
have an hour on the weekend? Two hours on the weekend,
you know, get the lawnmower started, make sure that the
(06:49):
lawnmower has gas, make sure that it has oil, and
it's all prepped. All those kinds of things that goes
along in your budget for landscaping. And so it really
depends on the size of your yard as to how
much that's going to cost, but certainly something that you
want to keep your eye on when it comes time
(07:11):
to budgeting for your home maintenance issues. All right, what's next.
Let's talk about exterior maintenance. The exterior maintenance on your
home could cost you anywhere again between one thousand dollars
to five thousand dollars, depending on what you need to
do now. Oftentimes, and on this show, I talk about
(07:32):
making sure that you have no air leaks or air
gaps around the exterior of your home. Around your windows
and your doors. You want to make sure that it's
all tight and you have a nice clean beat of
cock between your windows and your frames, and your and
your sills, all of those kinds of things that takes
(07:53):
time and obviously money. You may also on the outside
of your home, maybe your driveway needs a little bit
of maintenance. If you see some cracks in your driveway,
you may want to think about budgeting in the coming year,
budgeting to get those cracks filled. And you can either
do it yourself or you can hire somebody. If you
(08:14):
hire somebody, it's always going to be just a little
bit more expensive, So you know, it may be it's
something that you can handle on your own, but at
the same time, if you can't handle it, budget for it,
and then those surprises when they do happen or when
it's time to make those repairs. You have some money
in your pocket you've been setting aside because you know
(08:37):
that home maintenance is extremely important. All of these things
add up, and when you own a home, you don't
often think about oh you think about, oh my gosh,
i can't wait to get into my home. I'm going
to buy some furniture. I'm going to love it so much. Yeah,
but there's more than just the pretty things when you
(08:57):
own a home, there's so much more to it and
home maintenance issues. If you spend fifty bucks on making
sure that your windows and doors are cocked and sealed properly,
it will save you thousands of dollars in the end
when it comes. If you don't have leaks as a
result of water getting in or when it's freezing, the
(09:21):
freezing rain getting in, that sort of thing, it can
really add up. So today on the Sloan Sales Homes
Open House, we're talking about home maintenance issues and a
budget for home maintenance. And so if you miss any
of this show today, you can definitely go check it
out on Sloan Sales Homes open House on YouTube or
(09:47):
Sloan Saleshomes dot com. That's my website. That's the best
way to get a hold of me if you ever
are in the market. To buy or sell a home.
That's what I do. And so actually, and and this
is I have a little bit of an announcement to make.
I think I might wait until after the break, but
I do have a little bit of announcement to make,
(10:08):
and so you'll still be able to see me. But
some things are going to be changing in the new year.
So I am going to take that break right now.
When I come back, I'm going to explain what the
heck I'm talking about. Thanks for listening. My name is
Michelle Sloan, and you're listening to the Sloan Sales Homes
open House right here on fifty five KRS the Talk Station.
(10:33):
Welcome back to the Sloan Sales Homes open House right
here on fifty five KRC the Talk Station. Okay, so
I said before the break that I have a little
bit of an announcement to make. I just wanted to
let you know that I will be taking a break
from this program at the end of the year. I'm
no longer going to be on at four o'clock. I
(10:56):
am going to be continuing to record segments. I'm going
to have a Sloan Sales Homes open House on YouTube.
I will continue to be on Simply Money as the
real estate expert on fifty five KRC, and I'm also
going to continue to be on Scott Sloan's show on
Thursdays at eleven thirty am unless he kicks me off.
(11:18):
You know, the old man. He gets a little cranky sometimes.
But at the same time, there is going to be
a change. I have been doing this radio program for
eight years, and so I have been talking to you
on the radio on fifty five KRC for eight years.
It's been a wonderful run, but it has been my
decision that I need to take a little bit of
(11:41):
a break from doing the radio. I'm going to continue
to sell real estate. That's not going to be changing
anytime soon. So I really hope that you will keep
my name and number in your mind when it comes
to real estate an expert in the industry, someone who's
and in the marketplace selling real estate in Ohio, especially
(12:04):
in the Cincinnati Northern Cincinnati area since two thousand and five.
I'm going to be celebrating my twentieth year officially in
the business, so I want to just take a moment
to thank you. I still have a few more shows
that I will be on the radio, but as of
the end of December, I'm no longer going to be
(12:28):
on the Loan Sales Homes open house right here on
fifty five kre see. So I just want to thank
everybody so much for listening. Over the years, I've had
a lot of people reach out to me and thank
me for the information. I'm going to still provide that information,
but you'll be able to find it on other sources, YouTube,
(12:48):
my website Sloan Saleshomes dot Com. Again, I'm not going anywhere,
but at the same time, i just need you to know. Okay,
all right, so let's get back to our topic today.
Our topic today is home maintenance and budgeting for your
home maintenance needs, and it is a need. Budgeting for
(13:11):
home maintenance is very, very important. So we've already talked
about making sure that you have maintenance for your HVAC system,
your heating and cooling system. You want to make sure
that you have about one hundred and two three hundred
dollars set aside just for maintenance. Okay, so that's your filters,
your general cleaning and checking of the systems, plumbing, and electrical.
(13:34):
We didn't talk about that yet. Plumbing and electrical items.
That's something again you probably don't think that you have
to budget for because when you buy your home, water
runs down the drain. All good, but what about those
nasty clogs? What about so if you've got hair like me,
(13:56):
I shed a bit and so in my in the
shower drain and in the sink, every so often we
get a clog because of hair. And again this is
I know, something that we all, most of us have
to deal with. And so every I would say probably
(14:19):
once a year, every six months, you want to check
your traps and your drains to make sure that you
don't have a clog or even a clog forming, because
once it starts to form and that water starts to
back up because you have a ball of hair like
a cat, got hair balls, and you want to make
sure that you get those cleaned out. And so there's
(14:40):
like there's some really simple things that you can do
before it gets too bad. So there is a tool
that is a long tool and has little spikes on
it that you can stick down the drain and you
bring it back up, and it's kind of nasty looking,
but it will bring up the hair along with it.
(15:01):
So there's different tools that you can look at at
the home improvement store. If you want to go out
and take care of that yourself, you can certainly always
hire somebody. You can put chemicals down your drain. I
don't always recommend that because that those chemicals have to
go somewhere, and so I'm going to err on the
side of caution when it comes to dumping chemicals down
(15:25):
the drain. Kind of willy nilly, I don't recommend that.
The other thing, and this is one of those things
that if you have not taught been taught, or you
have been dumping grease down your kitchen sink. So you
cook meat and you drain off the grease. Maybe you
(15:47):
put it in a container, or maybe you drain it
right into the drain, and that grease you're running hot water,
and you think, oh, it's fine, I'm running the hot water.
The grease is going to go down. It's in a
liquid form. But here's what's happening. That grease, at some
point along the line is going to solidify. And when
(16:08):
it solidifies, over time, your drain is going to get
smaller and smaller and smaller until the point where no
water can pass through. That is a problem. Now, it
may take years. It may take years to happen, or
it may take longer. It depends on how much you cook,
I guess, and how much grease you dump down your drain.
(16:32):
But when you clean out, you want to make sure
that you don't dump any grease down your drain. The
best thing that you can do, and this is what
my mom did back in the day. Maybe you're cooking
and you have a can, a can that you used.
Maybe it was a soup can, or maybe it was
(16:54):
all what it would be tomato can, something like that.
Whatever you were cooking with umpen in the can. Let
it solidify and then throw it in the garbage. Or
you can very easily take paper towels, pat out that
some of that grease and throw it away. You want
to put it in the garbage and not down your drain.
(17:14):
I have seen there was one inspection that was done
many years ago, and I remember this so completely because
I had the buyer on this property and the drain
was running quite slow, and so we asked the seller
to take care of this slow drain, and it was
(17:34):
from the kitchen drain. They went ahead and they got
an expert in first, they tried chemicals that didn't do anything.
They tried to snake it with that, and that didn't
do anything because the clog was really deep into that
drain well. In the end, they actually had to dig
(17:55):
up and replace a piece of pipe that was completely
clogged with grease. And it was about a two foot
section that was completely clogged. And oh my gosh, do
you know how much that cost? It costs like six
thousand dollars because a you're digging, you're looking for that
(18:15):
drain pipe. You have to find the source of the issue.
They put like the camera down there to see how
far it was. It was quite a ways. It was
before they got to the street. Remember, Greece is gonna
solidify at some point. You may not think it's going
to solidify and you're gonna you know, you're flushing it
down your drain and you don't have to worry about
(18:36):
it anymore. That is absolutely not the case. So if
you are right now, if you have been putting grease
down your trap, down the drain, please stop right now,
because in the end it could cost you thousands of
dollars to hire somebody and do a repair again. It
(18:56):
may take years, and you may say, oh, I've been
doing it forever. Okay, well this is your opportunity to
stop doing it and potentially help save you money in
the long run, because it's not cheap to hire a
plumber and dig for something and then replace it and
(19:17):
then the fix the repair, make that repair. So definitely
something to think about at all times. Okay, Today on
the Sloan Sales Homes Open House, we're talking about budgeting,
budgeting for maintenance issues around your house. What about past control.
(19:38):
You may not have a problem. Do you have a
problem with mice getting into your house during the cold
winter months, finding a little place to nest. Yeah, nobody
wants to have mice inside their house. Maybe we need
to get a cat to help with that situation. But
that's not going to solve the problem. I mean, the
cat will be happy, I think. But yeah, no, let's
(20:01):
keep the mice out. Let's let's do pest control issues.
Let's do preventative maintenance. When it comes to pest control,
it would cost you approximately two hundred to four hundred dollars,
so not that big of a thing. The other thing,
it's not just the mice. Don't forget you know, we've
got ants and potentially termites and other little creepy crawly
(20:23):
things that we want to make sure that we're keeping
out of the house. So if you live in an area,
or if you have trees around your home, think about
having pest control on your home maintenance list. All right,
I'm gonna take a quick break for news. When we
come back, I think I have let's see, I've got
about five more home maintenance items budgeting items that we
(20:45):
need to consider. My name's Michelle Sloan and you're listening
to the Sloan Sales Homes open House right here on
fifty five KR see the talk station.
Speaker 2 (20:58):
When it comes to real estate, you can have a
thousand questions. Luckily, there's one agent you can turn to
for honest answers, Remax time agent Michelle Sloan from Sloan
Saleshomes dot com. This is your opportunity to learn from
one of the best and most trusted agents in the business.
This is the Sloan Sales Homes open House with Michelle
(21:19):
Sloan on fifty five KRC the talk station.
Speaker 3 (21:26):
Welcome back, So glad that you could join me today.
All right, so we're talking about home maintenance, budgeting, do
you budget for your home maintenance issues? Do you set
aside a little bit of money the just in case fund,
or do you even have a home maintenance plan. So
the reason why I talk about this is it's extremely
(21:48):
important that you do have a plan because if you
buy a home and you don't have a plan, it
can cost you thousands and thousands of dollars. And so
I'm here to save you money today on those home
maintenance issues. We're going to make sure that they don't
grow into bigger issues. And so that's the whole point
(22:10):
of going over and having a budget for these home
maintenance items. So home maintenance is very, very different from
home updates, which I also talk about quite often. You know,
if you're going to do a whole remodel of your kitchen,
that's not what I'm talking about today. Today, I'm talking
about the basics, doing the things that you need to
(22:31):
do around the house throughout the year to make sure
that your home is maintained and is working properly. You
don't think about that now when you have a car.
You think about the maintenance of your vehicle, making sure
that you're changing the oil on a regular basis every
three thousand or five thousand miles, whatever the case may be.
(22:53):
That's a maintenance issue. Those are the kinds of things
we're talking about around the house. So homeowners should budget
anywhere between one to two percent of the home's value
for home maintenance budgeting. Okay, so if you have a
three hundred thousand dollars home, you want to set aside
(23:15):
approximately three thousand to six thousand dollars to make sure
that your home is running properly, and it is. You know,
everything's in tip top shape, which is exactly what we want.
So and if you have a much larger home, that's awesome,
but you also want to make sure that you have
(23:35):
maintenance a maintenance budget for your home if it costs
a lot more, because most likely in that instance, let's
say a three hundred thousand dollar home probably only has
one h backsystem. But if you have a six or
seven hundred thousand dollars home, chances are you have two
or three heating and cooling systems within that home. So
(23:57):
you can see how that number will double and triple.
It's still about one to two percent of the value
of your home. So you think about that, how much
is your homeworth that's how much budget you need for
those home maintenance ide issues. Okay, so we're talking about plumbing,
an electrical, landscaping, exterior MA maintenance is also very important.
(24:23):
Appliance repair. Let's think about it. Are you going to
if your refrigerator goes out today or tomorrow or next week,
are you going to just automatically replace it or are
you going to try to spend a couple hundred dollars
to fix it? To make a repair. I had the
same issue not too long ago. I had a refrigerator
(24:43):
that was on the blink. It wasn't cooling properly, and
so I'm like, ah, the fridge is probably about eight
to ten years old, it's probably it's done. We're done. Well,
my husband, mister Scott Sloan on seven hundred WLW, he said,
we are going to fix it. We are not buying
a new refrigerator today. Okay. So I actually called a company,
(25:05):
a local company that does appliance repair, had them come
to the house and they looked at the fan wasn't
running in the refrigerator, so you have to have a
little fan running whatever. Okay, So they fixed that issue
and the fridge was working again. Okay, everybody's happy. It
cost me a couple hundred dollars, not a big deal. Well,
(25:27):
about a week later, it start stopped cooling again. So
I'm like, okay, can I have my new fridge now?
That's like, no, you do not need a new fridge.
We're going to fix it. Like okay, fine, So we
called the company back and said, can you come back out.
It's still not working properly. Can you find the issue?
(25:47):
So they went back, they found another issue. They actually
replaced the whole board. Because everything's smart today, everything needs
like some sort of software or you know, something technical
that I don't I can't do and I don't have.
So they replaced the main motherboard or whatever on the fridge,
(26:09):
and again it was working fine. It wasn't working as
well as it once did. Well. Then after a little
bit of snooping and a little bit of brain power,
we noticed we had a very big icing issue that
had run in the back of the of the unit,
(26:29):
and so we thought it cleaned it all out, cleaned
the entire fridge, and it's been working perfectly ever since.
So it cost me about four hundred dollars to get
those repairs done. But I guess that's a lot cheaper
than getting a brand new refrigerator that was going to
cost me four five thousand dollars to replace. So he
(26:52):
won that battle. I wanted a new fridge, but he
won that battle. I can't nothing I can do about that.
But it's okay, it's fine. I've got a fridge, it's working.
That's all the matters at this point. So some other
issues that you want to make sure that you're budgeting for.
Let's talk about that electrical repairs. You probably don't think
(27:14):
about it again, It really really depends on the age
of your home. How much repairs, how much money you
set aside for budgeting maintenance and repairs is really going
to depend on the home. If you have a brand
new home, I mean like brand spank and new, not
just new to you, your home maintenance budget will be less.
(27:39):
But if you have a forty or fifty year old home,
guess what, those home maintenance items are going to be
a little bit more costly and you may have more
of them. So that's what you have to think about.
A lot of times when I'm helping buyers look at properties,
some buyers are adamant, I want a home that's five
years old or less, because I know that starting in
(28:03):
year ten, eight to ten, those budgeting items, those maintenance items,
are going to start to add up each and every year,
so you may pay more. And this is sort of
the pros and cons of buying a home that's a
little bit newer as compared to something that's older. Maintenance issues, repairs, updates,
(28:25):
all those kinds of things you want to factor into
your budget. So if you are buying a home you
want to think about you want to talk to your
agent about, Okay, do I want something that is young, fresh,
clean and new, or do I want something with a
little bit more character. But it's going to be older,
(28:48):
so you're going to have some issues that are going
to be likely to come up. So if you spend
more in a brand new house, you're not going to
have maintenance issues for a few years. If you buy
an older home, you probably will have more maintenance issues
and expenses sooner rather than later once you buy that house.
(29:08):
So it's really smart to think about everything and work
with a real estate agent who helps you think about
all of the aspects of buying a home. It's not
just about what neighborhood you want to live in, what
school district you want to live in. Well, you know,
an age of the home is very, very important to
(29:29):
consider because down the line you want to still be
able to take care of your property and you want
to make sure that you are keeping up with those
maintenance issues. All right, So we're talking about let's see,
we did the HVAC, we did plumbing, we did roofing,
appliance repairs, washing machines, ovens. I don't think ovens really
(29:52):
break down that much, do they. I don't know. I've
had a gas range for a long time other than
cleaning it, any problems with it, thankfully. Exterior painting, painting,
curb appeal. You know, exterior painting is a home maintenance issue.
You want to make sure because if you are if
(30:14):
you have wood sighting or you have wood soffets, you
can't just buy it and forget it. Those anything that's
on the exterior of your home that is wood, if
it's not vinyl, it needs general maintenance. Otherwise, after a while,
(30:35):
over the years, that wood is going to start to rot.
Water will get in there that it will swell. The
wood will swell, and a lot of times the soffits
on our homes are made of particle board, so it's
pressed wood, little pieces of pressed wood, and so that
particle board is actually going to once once the weather
(31:00):
gets through the paint and the exterior of that particle board,
water is going to get in there, that those fibers
are going to swell, and if they swell, they're going
to rot. Major issues. So you have to keep up
with the maintenance of the exterior of your home, especially
(31:20):
if you have wood on the x ear of your
home anywhere, and we're talking not about what's on the
side of your house and in your soffets. You want
to make sure that if you have decking, all those
things should be looked at, and maintenance is either painting
or staining on a regular basis, maybe not every year,
but certainly every few years. You want to have that
(31:43):
on your bucket list, on your maintenance budget bucket list.
All right, I'm going to take a quick break. When
we come back, I'm going to wrap this up. I
think we're about finish. I think I've hit all of
the main things, and we're going to talk about let's see,
we'll talk about something else when we come back. You
just have to hang on I'm so glad that you're
(32:03):
listening today to the Sloan Sales Homes Open House right
here on fifty five KRS the talk station. Welcome back
to the Sloan Sales Homes Open House. I am Michelle Sloan,
your local residential realtor and broker at Remax Time. You
know what, I have been doing this radio show for
(32:25):
about eight years now, and it has been wonderful because
when I'm out and about or if you're listening and
you've been listening for a while, hopefully you've taken away
a little bit of knowledge about real estate in the
Cincinnati area, you will understand that I need a little break,
(32:45):
that's all. And so I won't be on the radio anymore.
At the end of the year, I'm going to be
hanging up that microphone at least on fifty five KRC.
For the most part, I still will be on Simply
Money as their real estate expert, and I will still
be on seven hundred WLW with my husband, Scott Sloan
Thursdays at eleven thirty am. He can't get rid of me.
(33:10):
We've been married for thirty some years, a long time,
so yeah, he can't really get rid of me, And
oftentimes we get a lot of people will say, you know,
I've heard you on the radio. You're pretty good, And
I appreciate that with all my heart because it has
been a pleasure to be able to talk to you
(33:31):
each and every Sunday on this program. So you know,
we've got a few more weeks, So hang in there.
Don't forget about me, because I'm not going anywhere. I'm
still going to be selling real estate. I'm not retiring.
Somebody on Facebook they said I was retiring. I'm not retiring.
I ended up buying like three more real estate businesses,
so quite the opposite. I'm not retiring. I'm going to
(33:56):
be continuing down this path for a little while longer.
You can't get rid of me. Kind of like a
little cockroach. I'm just kidding. Speaking of cockroaches, make sure
that you're budgeting for past control around your home. See that?
See how did that? All right? I'm gonna switch gears
just a little bit, and we're gonna be talking about
(34:18):
if your walls could talk, would your walls actually tell
the next home owner that they haven't been cleaning, they
haven't been taking care of this home, They've never let's
see here, they've never had the heating and cooling system
(34:39):
cleaned and checked. Is that what your walls would say
about you and how you've taken care of their home
of the home. So think about that. So when you
are going to sell your home, oftentimes as a realtor,
I will come in and we will do a to
do list. We will make sure that we take care
of this superficial things around the house, the items that
(35:03):
I can see. I don't know your home, I don't
know the history of your home. I can only rely
on you. So it is really important that you know
how your home is running and how you've been taking
care of it on a weekly, monthly, annual basis. So
(35:26):
if you've been really good at taking care of that
home maintenance, the issues that come up in the home,
taking care of them as soon as they happen, then
we're not going to have any problems.
Speaker 1 (35:39):
Right.
Speaker 3 (35:40):
But if you're trying to hide something from me and
hide something from a potential buyer, that could come and
bite you in the butt. And I'm not saying that
to be you know, mean or anything. I'm just telling
you it's better that you be open and honest because
(36:04):
this is an extremely litigious society. We know this, and
so if you are going to hide things, you could
be legally responsible for making repairs even after closing. So
(36:24):
this is this is something that I take extremely seriously,
and it's part of the property disclosure It's part of
the law. As a homeowner. When you sell a home,
you have to disclose issues, hidden issues that I don't
know about your house, but you do now. I've also
(36:46):
seen some things. Neighbors, if they know about issues inside
of your home, they will tell the new owner, and
they will tell the new owner that you knew. Let's
say you have a flood in your basement and you
just did the basics. You did the minimum, you cleaned
it out, you dried it out, but you didn't go
(37:09):
ahead and maybe replace some of the boards that were rotten.
You just painted over it, or you finished the space
and covered it up. Covering up serious issues can cost
you an awful lot of money and pain and heartache.
(37:30):
If a new homeowner finds out about it and finds
out that you knew about it, that's the key. So
when you're filling out that property disclosure form, I'm going
to make sure and tell you how serious it is
that you definitely disclose anything that you know about the home. Now,
(37:51):
sometimes there are issues in the attic or if you
have a crawl space, there are issues in places around
your home that you don't know about, and you find
out about it during the home inspection. Okay, that's okay,
I mean it is it's actually okay, because I found
(38:14):
in one home inspection there was a bird's nest that
was like, it was monstrous. It was the size of
a small car, and birds had been nesting in this
attic for years and years. The homeowner had no idea.
So guess what they had to fix it. They had
(38:36):
to remove all of the bird material. They had to
make sure that all of the nesting material was gone.
They had to make sure that everything was sealed so
that the birds can't get back in. They're gonna have
to find another home. And so that was taken care of.
But the homeowner had no idea, had no clue, was
absolutely flabbergasted when they found out when the pictures came
(38:59):
back from that attic and that was in the attic,
they were absolutely stunned and mortified to a certain extent,
and took care of it right away. But if you
are having property issues and you think you're going to
be smart or sly, I'm going to tell you you're
(39:20):
actually being stupid. And I don't say that again to
be terribly mean. I'm just saying it because it could
cost you more money and more trouble than it's worth.
Be honest, Be honest with your real estate agent. Because
here's one thing, and a lot of people don't understand this.
If you tell me, if you tell me your real
(39:42):
estate agent that there was water in the basement. Now,
maybe it was cleaned up, or maybe it wasn't cleaned up. Whatever,
it's like, Yeah, my septic backed up, or my some
pump backed ups was failing, and so water came in
the basement and you know, we dried it up. It
was not that big a deal. Here's the thing. Better
(40:06):
be safe than sorry. Things like that happen, so you
have to disclose it. If you don't disclose it and
it's an issue that you never took care of properly,
I am obligated by my license law to tell potential buyers.
And you may say, well that you're not working for me,
then yes i am. I'm working to save your behind.
(40:31):
I'm looking to save you from a lawsuit. So your
best bet always because your walls will talk and it
could come back and hurt you. So again, neighbors are nosy.
They know things. You tell them things you don't think
it's a big deal. But then those same neighbors are
(40:52):
going to tell a new homeowner, and if it's something
you don't want a new homeowner to know, maybe you
needed to close it. So when it comes to residential
property disclosures, it's important to provide the buyers with all
of the relevant information about the property. Structural issues, that's
(41:12):
the big one. If you have a crack in your
foundation or your foundation is bowed, and you're like, a
you know what, I'm going to cover up. I'm going
to finish that foundation. I'm going to put a wall
in front of it so nobody can see it. Okay,
that is against the law when it comes to selling
your home, So you must disclose any known structural problems,
(41:36):
foundation issues, roof leaks, plumbing problems, structural issues. That's the
worst case scenario because the first heavy rain, if that
basement just maybe it fails. Maybe you never had water
in the basement, but you knew there was a huge
crack in that foundation and you didn't just close it.
(42:00):
And then rain comes in and you just recently put
up a wall to cover that up. Guess what, you
might have a lawyer knocking on your door and nobody
wants that. Nobody wants that. All right, I am all
wrapped up for today. I want to thank you all
for joining me again. If you miss any of this,
(42:21):
or if you'd like to see the highlights the visuals
of me doing this program, you can go to the
Sloan Sales Homes open House on YouTube. You can go
to my website. We'll be posting snippets of segments, probably
taking out all the uzz and the ums and the
things that make me as my brain is trying to
(42:43):
process things. But I hope that you've enjoyed the show today.
I hope that you always remember me Michelle Sloan at
Sloan Saleshomes dot com. And this is fifty five krs
the talk station
This is the Sloan Sales Homes open House with Michelle Sloan,
Remax time agent and proprietor of Sloan Saleshomes dot Com.
You have questions, she.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Has the answers. This is your opportunity to learn from
one of the best and most trusted agents in the business.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
This is the Sloan Sales Homes open House with Michelle
Sloan on fifty five KRC the Talk Station.
Speaker 3 (00:30):
Welcome back. I'm so glad that you could join me today.
Today we're going to be talking about budgeting, budgeting for
home maintenance items. Whenever you hear the word budget, does
it send shivers down your spine. It does for me.
But when you buy a home, it is really important
for you to think about budgeting for home maintenance items.
(00:51):
And I have a list today that I think will
be extremely helpful. And a lot of people don't even
think about it. They just take those items as they come.
So if you have let's say the furnace breaks, well,
then you get the furnace fixed. Hopefully you have the
budget or at least a little bit of emergency fund
so that you can get your furnace fixed. But it
(01:13):
is important and very very smart. If you have a home,
you have a maintenance budget for your home, and you
have to be conscious of that because it is so
easy to forget. It is so easy to forget doing
those home maintenance items because they're not really the most
exciting or fun for anybody. The general rule of thumb,
(01:37):
the common guideline is to set aside between one and
two percent of your home's purchase price for maintenance items.
So if you have a three hundred thousand dollars home,
you want to go ahead and set aside between three
thousand and six thousand dollars. If you have a much
more expensive home, Bigger homes, bigger problems, bigger maintenance items,
(01:59):
so you want to go out head and set aside
a little bit more. Again, this is just a general
rule of thumb. It will depend on the location that
you live in, the age of your home, how good
of condition that it's in when you purchase it. All
of these things are going to contribute to whether or
not how much money you're going to be spending on
(02:21):
home maintenance. So we're going to go through some of
these home maintenance items and we're going to also talk
about how much each one costs on average per year,
and this is going to help us add that up
between three and six thousand dollars for the average home
in Cincinnati being around three hundred thousand dollars. Okay, so
that makes sense. The first thing is always your HVAC,
(02:43):
your heating and cooling system. It is the lifeline to
your home. And if you're not spending two to three
hundred dollars a year to get your furnace cleaned and
checked and making sure that you have all of the
filters that you need for your furnace, you could be
in for a much, much bigger problem, and a more
(03:06):
costly problem at that. So making sure that you are
again setting aside a little bit of money. The next
thing up roof repairs. Now, you may have a brand
new roof, Okay, you put in a bunch of money.
You put in thousands of dollars to put on a
new roof, So you may not have those maintenance items
or those maintenance issues for a couple of years after
(03:30):
the roof is installed, but you may have other roof
related situations that come up throughout the year, such as gutters.
Making sure that your gutters are attached to the house properly,
making sure that you're cleaning out the gutters, making sure
that all of those your gutters are clean and free
of leaves and debris. Just this last week, honestly, I
(03:53):
went to go see a home and it had trees
growing out of the gutters. The leaves have been packed.
The leaves and the little helicopters went ahead and started
to grow inside the gutters. That's going to create a
heaviness on those gutters. It's going to pull those gutters down.
It's going to cause a clog so water has no
(04:14):
place to go. It's going to back up into your home,
cause you additional issues and additional money as well. So
making sure that you're keeping an eye on your roof,
your gutters, the exterior of your home at all times
is extremely important. So today on the Sloan Sales Homes
open house, we are talking about home maintenance items and
(04:37):
budgeting for those home maintenance items so that you can
take a little bit of the surprise out of doing
these doing these kinds of updates to your home. It
is very important for you to continue to maintain your home.
It is the most expensive and the most rewarding purchase
(05:00):
that you'll ever make. But there are some downfalls or
there's some things that you need to think about as
you move forward. All right, so what's next on the list?
We have roof repairs. We did that one. So the
cost of roof repairs that you want to sort of
keep in mind in your budget anywhere between three hundred
and fifteen hundred dollars, again depending on the size of
(05:21):
your roof. All right, what about what's next? Landscaping and
lawn care. Now that's could actually the maintenance of your
lawn could cost you more. If you're hiring someone to
do your lawn maintenance, that's going to cost more. You're
going to have to budget more for that. Or maybe
(05:41):
you're sick and tired of mowing your lawn every week
and cleaning up the leaves at the end of the season.
Maybe you're going to think about in the new year
actually hiring somebody to take care of your landscaping. All right,
you may need to budget for that oftentimes. And so
this is just a general rule of thumb in the
Cincinnati area. If you hire somebody to take care of
(06:03):
your lawn, if you have an average sized lawn, let's
say less than a half acre, right, maybe a quarter
of an acre or a third of an acre. It'll
probably cost you about sixty dollars a week, could be less,
could be more to just mow your lawn on a
weekly basis, or even a bi weekly basis. So you
want to if you're budgeting fifty bucks a week, that's
(06:26):
going to add up. So you have to decide is
this important to me? Do I get that hour of
time back so that I'm not dealing with mowing? That
to me is one of those things that I'd rather
have my time back. I'm busy, you're busy. Do you
have an hour on the weekend? Two hours on the weekend,
you know, get the lawnmower started, make sure that the
(06:49):
lawnmower has gas, make sure that it has oil, and
it's all prepped. All those kinds of things that goes
along in your budget for landscaping. And so it really
depends on the size of your yard as to how
much that's going to cost, but certainly something that you
want to keep your eye on when it comes time
(07:11):
to budgeting for your home maintenance issues. All right, what's next.
Let's talk about exterior maintenance. The exterior maintenance on your
home could cost you anywhere again between one thousand dollars
to five thousand dollars, depending on what you need to
do now. Oftentimes, and on this show, I talk about
(07:32):
making sure that you have no air leaks or air
gaps around the exterior of your home. Around your windows
and your doors. You want to make sure that it's
all tight and you have a nice clean beat of
cock between your windows and your frames, and your and
your sills, all of those kinds of things that takes
(07:53):
time and obviously money. You may also on the outside
of your home, maybe your driveway needs a little bit
of maintenance. If you see some cracks in your driveway,
you may want to think about budgeting in the coming year,
budgeting to get those cracks filled. And you can either
do it yourself or you can hire somebody. If you
(08:14):
hire somebody, it's always going to be just a little
bit more expensive, So you know, it may be it's
something that you can handle on your own, but at
the same time, if you can't handle it, budget for it,
and then those surprises when they do happen or when
it's time to make those repairs. You have some money
in your pocket you've been setting aside because you know
(08:37):
that home maintenance is extremely important. All of these things
add up, and when you own a home, you don't
often think about oh you think about, oh my gosh,
i can't wait to get into my home. I'm going
to buy some furniture. I'm going to love it so much. Yeah,
but there's more than just the pretty things when you
(08:57):
own a home, there's so much more to it and
home maintenance issues. If you spend fifty bucks on making
sure that your windows and doors are cocked and sealed properly,
it will save you thousands of dollars in the end
when it comes. If you don't have leaks as a
result of water getting in or when it's freezing, the
(09:21):
freezing rain getting in, that sort of thing, it can
really add up. So today on the Sloan Sales Homes
Open House, we're talking about home maintenance issues and a
budget for home maintenance. And so if you miss any
of this show today, you can definitely go check it
out on Sloan Sales Homes open House on YouTube or
(09:47):
Sloan Saleshomes dot com. That's my website. That's the best
way to get a hold of me if you ever
are in the market. To buy or sell a home.
That's what I do. And so actually, and and this
is I have a little bit of an announcement to make.
I think I might wait until after the break, but
I do have a little bit of announcement to make,
(10:08):
and so you'll still be able to see me. But
some things are going to be changing in the new year.
So I am going to take that break right now.
When I come back, I'm going to explain what the
heck I'm talking about. Thanks for listening. My name is
Michelle Sloan, and you're listening to the Sloan Sales Homes
open House right here on fifty five KRS the Talk Station.
(10:33):
Welcome back to the Sloan Sales Homes open House right
here on fifty five KRC the Talk Station. Okay, so
I said before the break that I have a little
bit of an announcement to make. I just wanted to
let you know that I will be taking a break
from this program at the end of the year. I'm
no longer going to be on at four o'clock. I
(10:56):
am going to be continuing to record segments. I'm going
to have a Sloan Sales Homes open House on YouTube.
I will continue to be on Simply Money as the
real estate expert on fifty five KRC, and I'm also
going to continue to be on Scott Sloan's show on
Thursdays at eleven thirty am unless he kicks me off.
(11:18):
You know, the old man. He gets a little cranky sometimes.
But at the same time, there is going to be
a change. I have been doing this radio program for
eight years, and so I have been talking to you
on the radio on fifty five KRC for eight years.
It's been a wonderful run, but it has been my
decision that I need to take a little bit of
(11:41):
a break from doing the radio. I'm going to continue
to sell real estate. That's not going to be changing
anytime soon. So I really hope that you will keep
my name and number in your mind when it comes
to real estate an expert in the industry, someone who's
and in the marketplace selling real estate in Ohio, especially
(12:04):
in the Cincinnati Northern Cincinnati area since two thousand and five.
I'm going to be celebrating my twentieth year officially in
the business, so I want to just take a moment
to thank you. I still have a few more shows
that I will be on the radio, but as of
the end of December, I'm no longer going to be
(12:28):
on the Loan Sales Homes open house right here on
fifty five kre see. So I just want to thank
everybody so much for listening. Over the years, I've had
a lot of people reach out to me and thank
me for the information. I'm going to still provide that information,
but you'll be able to find it on other sources, YouTube,
(12:48):
my website Sloan Saleshomes dot Com. Again, I'm not going anywhere,
but at the same time, i just need you to know. Okay,
all right, so let's get back to our topic today.
Our topic today is home maintenance and budgeting for your
home maintenance needs, and it is a need. Budgeting for
(13:11):
home maintenance is very, very important. So we've already talked
about making sure that you have maintenance for your HVAC system,
your heating and cooling system. You want to make sure
that you have about one hundred and two three hundred
dollars set aside just for maintenance. Okay, so that's your filters,
your general cleaning and checking of the systems, plumbing, and electrical.
(13:34):
We didn't talk about that yet. Plumbing and electrical items.
That's something again you probably don't think that you have
to budget for because when you buy your home, water
runs down the drain. All good, but what about those
nasty clogs? What about so if you've got hair like me,
(13:56):
I shed a bit and so in my in the
shower drain and in the sink, every so often we
get a clog because of hair. And again this is
I know, something that we all, most of us have
to deal with. And so every I would say probably
(14:19):
once a year, every six months, you want to check
your traps and your drains to make sure that you
don't have a clog or even a clog forming, because
once it starts to form and that water starts to
back up because you have a ball of hair like
a cat, got hair balls, and you want to make
sure that you get those cleaned out. And so there's
(14:40):
like there's some really simple things that you can do
before it gets too bad. So there is a tool
that is a long tool and has little spikes on
it that you can stick down the drain and you
bring it back up, and it's kind of nasty looking,
but it will bring up the hair along with it.
(15:01):
So there's different tools that you can look at at
the home improvement store. If you want to go out
and take care of that yourself, you can certainly always
hire somebody. You can put chemicals down your drain. I
don't always recommend that because that those chemicals have to
go somewhere, and so I'm going to err on the
side of caution when it comes to dumping chemicals down
(15:25):
the drain. Kind of willy nilly, I don't recommend that.
The other thing, and this is one of those things
that if you have not taught been taught, or you
have been dumping grease down your kitchen sink. So you
cook meat and you drain off the grease. Maybe you
(15:47):
put it in a container, or maybe you drain it
right into the drain, and that grease you're running hot water,
and you think, oh, it's fine, I'm running the hot water.
The grease is going to go down. It's in a
liquid form. But here's what's happening. That grease, at some
point along the line is going to solidify. And when
(16:08):
it solidifies, over time, your drain is going to get
smaller and smaller and smaller until the point where no
water can pass through. That is a problem. Now, it
may take years. It may take years to happen, or
it may take longer. It depends on how much you cook,
I guess, and how much grease you dump down your drain.
(16:32):
But when you clean out, you want to make sure
that you don't dump any grease down your drain. The
best thing that you can do, and this is what
my mom did back in the day. Maybe you're cooking
and you have a can, a can that you used.
Maybe it was a soup can, or maybe it was
(16:54):
all what it would be tomato can, something like that.
Whatever you were cooking with umpen in the can. Let
it solidify and then throw it in the garbage. Or
you can very easily take paper towels, pat out that
some of that grease and throw it away. You want
to put it in the garbage and not down your drain.
(17:14):
I have seen there was one inspection that was done
many years ago, and I remember this so completely because
I had the buyer on this property and the drain
was running quite slow, and so we asked the seller
to take care of this slow drain, and it was
(17:34):
from the kitchen drain. They went ahead and they got
an expert in first, they tried chemicals that didn't do anything.
They tried to snake it with that, and that didn't
do anything because the clog was really deep into that
drain well. In the end, they actually had to dig
(17:55):
up and replace a piece of pipe that was completely
clogged with grease. And it was about a two foot
section that was completely clogged. And oh my gosh, do
you know how much that cost? It costs like six
thousand dollars because a you're digging, you're looking for that
(18:15):
drain pipe. You have to find the source of the issue.
They put like the camera down there to see how
far it was. It was quite a ways. It was
before they got to the street. Remember, Greece is gonna
solidify at some point. You may not think it's going
to solidify and you're gonna you know, you're flushing it
down your drain and you don't have to worry about
(18:36):
it anymore. That is absolutely not the case. So if
you are right now, if you have been putting grease
down your trap, down the drain, please stop right now,
because in the end it could cost you thousands of
dollars to hire somebody and do a repair again. It
(18:56):
may take years, and you may say, oh, I've been
doing it forever. Okay, well this is your opportunity to
stop doing it and potentially help save you money in
the long run, because it's not cheap to hire a
plumber and dig for something and then replace it and
(19:17):
then the fix the repair, make that repair. So definitely
something to think about at all times. Okay, Today on
the Sloan Sales Homes Open House, we're talking about budgeting,
budgeting for maintenance issues around your house. What about past control.
(19:38):
You may not have a problem. Do you have a
problem with mice getting into your house during the cold
winter months, finding a little place to nest. Yeah, nobody
wants to have mice inside their house. Maybe we need
to get a cat to help with that situation. But
that's not going to solve the problem. I mean, the
cat will be happy, I think. But yeah, no, let's
(20:01):
keep the mice out. Let's let's do pest control issues.
Let's do preventative maintenance. When it comes to pest control,
it would cost you approximately two hundred to four hundred dollars,
so not that big of a thing. The other thing,
it's not just the mice. Don't forget you know, we've
got ants and potentially termites and other little creepy crawly
(20:23):
things that we want to make sure that we're keeping
out of the house. So if you live in an area,
or if you have trees around your home, think about
having pest control on your home maintenance list. All right,
I'm gonna take a quick break for news. When we
come back, I think I have let's see, I've got
about five more home maintenance items budgeting items that we
(20:45):
need to consider. My name's Michelle Sloan and you're listening
to the Sloan Sales Homes open House right here on
fifty five KR see the talk station.
Speaker 2 (20:58):
When it comes to real estate, you can have a
thousand questions. Luckily, there's one agent you can turn to
for honest answers, Remax time agent Michelle Sloan from Sloan
Saleshomes dot com. This is your opportunity to learn from
one of the best and most trusted agents in the business.
This is the Sloan Sales Homes open House with Michelle
(21:19):
Sloan on fifty five KRC the talk station.
Speaker 3 (21:26):
Welcome back, So glad that you could join me today.
All right, so we're talking about home maintenance, budgeting, do
you budget for your home maintenance issues? Do you set
aside a little bit of money the just in case fund,
or do you even have a home maintenance plan. So
the reason why I talk about this is it's extremely
(21:48):
important that you do have a plan because if you
buy a home and you don't have a plan, it
can cost you thousands and thousands of dollars. And so
I'm here to save you money today on those home
maintenance issues. We're going to make sure that they don't
grow into bigger issues. And so that's the whole point
(22:10):
of going over and having a budget for these home
maintenance items. So home maintenance is very, very different from
home updates, which I also talk about quite often. You know,
if you're going to do a whole remodel of your kitchen,
that's not what I'm talking about today. Today, I'm talking
about the basics, doing the things that you need to
(22:31):
do around the house throughout the year to make sure
that your home is maintained and is working properly. You
don't think about that now when you have a car.
You think about the maintenance of your vehicle, making sure
that you're changing the oil on a regular basis every
three thousand or five thousand miles, whatever the case may be.
(22:53):
That's a maintenance issue. Those are the kinds of things
we're talking about around the house. So homeowners should budget
anywhere between one to two percent of the home's value
for home maintenance budgeting. Okay, so if you have a
three hundred thousand dollars home, you want to set aside
(23:15):
approximately three thousand to six thousand dollars to make sure
that your home is running properly, and it is. You know,
everything's in tip top shape, which is exactly what we want.
So and if you have a much larger home, that's awesome,
but you also want to make sure that you have
(23:35):
maintenance a maintenance budget for your home if it costs
a lot more, because most likely in that instance, let's
say a three hundred thousand dollar home probably only has
one h backsystem. But if you have a six or
seven hundred thousand dollars home, chances are you have two
or three heating and cooling systems within that home. So
(23:57):
you can see how that number will double and triple.
It's still about one to two percent of the value
of your home. So you think about that, how much
is your homeworth that's how much budget you need for
those home maintenance ide issues. Okay, so we're talking about plumbing,
an electrical, landscaping, exterior MA maintenance is also very important.
(24:23):
Appliance repair. Let's think about it. Are you going to
if your refrigerator goes out today or tomorrow or next week,
are you going to just automatically replace it or are
you going to try to spend a couple hundred dollars
to fix it? To make a repair. I had the
same issue not too long ago. I had a refrigerator
(24:43):
that was on the blink. It wasn't cooling properly, and
so I'm like, ah, the fridge is probably about eight
to ten years old, it's probably it's done. We're done. Well,
my husband, mister Scott Sloan on seven hundred WLW, he said,
we are going to fix it. We are not buying
a new refrigerator today. Okay. So I actually called a company,
(25:05):
a local company that does appliance repair, had them come
to the house and they looked at the fan wasn't
running in the refrigerator, so you have to have a
little fan running whatever. Okay, So they fixed that issue
and the fridge was working again. Okay, everybody's happy. It
cost me a couple hundred dollars, not a big deal. Well,
(25:27):
about a week later, it start stopped cooling again. So
I'm like, okay, can I have my new fridge now?
That's like, no, you do not need a new fridge.
We're going to fix it. Like okay, fine, So we
called the company back and said, can you come back out.
It's still not working properly. Can you find the issue?
(25:47):
So they went back, they found another issue. They actually
replaced the whole board. Because everything's smart today, everything needs
like some sort of software or you know, something technical
that I don't I can't do and I don't have.
So they replaced the main motherboard or whatever on the fridge,
(26:09):
and again it was working fine. It wasn't working as
well as it once did. Well. Then after a little
bit of snooping and a little bit of brain power,
we noticed we had a very big icing issue that
had run in the back of the of the unit,
(26:29):
and so we thought it cleaned it all out, cleaned
the entire fridge, and it's been working perfectly ever since.
So it cost me about four hundred dollars to get
those repairs done. But I guess that's a lot cheaper
than getting a brand new refrigerator that was going to
cost me four five thousand dollars to replace. So he
(26:52):
won that battle. I wanted a new fridge, but he
won that battle. I can't nothing I can do about that.
But it's okay, it's fine. I've got a fridge, it's working.
That's all the matters at this point. So some other
issues that you want to make sure that you're budgeting for.
Let's talk about that electrical repairs. You probably don't think
(27:14):
about it again, It really really depends on the age
of your home. How much repairs, how much money you
set aside for budgeting maintenance and repairs is really going
to depend on the home. If you have a brand
new home, I mean like brand spank and new, not
just new to you, your home maintenance budget will be less.
(27:39):
But if you have a forty or fifty year old home,
guess what, those home maintenance items are going to be
a little bit more costly and you may have more
of them. So that's what you have to think about.
A lot of times when I'm helping buyers look at properties,
some buyers are adamant, I want a home that's five
years old or less, because I know that starting in
(28:03):
year ten, eight to ten, those budgeting items, those maintenance items,
are going to start to add up each and every year,
so you may pay more. And this is sort of
the pros and cons of buying a home that's a
little bit newer as compared to something that's older. Maintenance issues, repairs, updates,
(28:25):
all those kinds of things you want to factor into
your budget. So if you are buying a home you
want to think about you want to talk to your
agent about, Okay, do I want something that is young, fresh,
clean and new, or do I want something with a
little bit more character. But it's going to be older,
(28:48):
so you're going to have some issues that are going
to be likely to come up. So if you spend
more in a brand new house, you're not going to
have maintenance issues for a few years. If you buy
an older home, you probably will have more maintenance issues
and expenses sooner rather than later once you buy that house.
(29:08):
So it's really smart to think about everything and work
with a real estate agent who helps you think about
all of the aspects of buying a home. It's not
just about what neighborhood you want to live in, what
school district you want to live in. Well, you know,
an age of the home is very, very important to
(29:29):
consider because down the line you want to still be
able to take care of your property and you want
to make sure that you are keeping up with those
maintenance issues. All right, So we're talking about let's see,
we did the HVAC, we did plumbing, we did roofing,
appliance repairs, washing machines, ovens. I don't think ovens really
(29:52):
break down that much, do they. I don't know. I've
had a gas range for a long time other than
cleaning it, any problems with it, thankfully. Exterior painting, painting,
curb appeal. You know, exterior painting is a home maintenance issue.
You want to make sure because if you are if
(30:14):
you have wood sighting or you have wood soffets, you
can't just buy it and forget it. Those anything that's
on the exterior of your home that is wood, if
it's not vinyl, it needs general maintenance. Otherwise, after a while,
(30:35):
over the years, that wood is going to start to rot.
Water will get in there that it will swell. The
wood will swell, and a lot of times the soffits
on our homes are made of particle board, so it's
pressed wood, little pieces of pressed wood, and so that
particle board is actually going to once once the weather
(31:00):
gets through the paint and the exterior of that particle board,
water is going to get in there, that those fibers
are going to swell, and if they swell, they're going
to rot. Major issues. So you have to keep up
with the maintenance of the exterior of your home, especially
(31:20):
if you have wood on the x ear of your
home anywhere, and we're talking not about what's on the
side of your house and in your soffets. You want
to make sure that if you have decking, all those
things should be looked at, and maintenance is either painting
or staining on a regular basis, maybe not every year,
but certainly every few years. You want to have that
(31:43):
on your bucket list, on your maintenance budget bucket list.
All right, I'm going to take a quick break. When
we come back, I'm going to wrap this up. I
think we're about finish. I think I've hit all of
the main things, and we're going to talk about let's see,
we'll talk about something else when we come back. You
just have to hang on I'm so glad that you're
(32:03):
listening today to the Sloan Sales Homes Open House right
here on fifty five KRS the talk station. Welcome back
to the Sloan Sales Homes Open House. I am Michelle Sloan,
your local residential realtor and broker at Remax Time. You
know what, I have been doing this radio show for
(32:25):
about eight years now, and it has been wonderful because
when I'm out and about or if you're listening and
you've been listening for a while, hopefully you've taken away
a little bit of knowledge about real estate in the
Cincinnati area, you will understand that I need a little break,
(32:45):
that's all. And so I won't be on the radio anymore.
At the end of the year, I'm going to be
hanging up that microphone at least on fifty five KRC.
For the most part, I still will be on Simply
Money as their real estate expert, and I will still
be on seven hundred WLW with my husband, Scott Sloan
Thursdays at eleven thirty am. He can't get rid of me.
(33:10):
We've been married for thirty some years, a long time,
so yeah, he can't really get rid of me, And
oftentimes we get a lot of people will say, you know,
I've heard you on the radio. You're pretty good, And
I appreciate that with all my heart because it has
been a pleasure to be able to talk to you
(33:31):
each and every Sunday on this program. So you know,
we've got a few more weeks, So hang in there.
Don't forget about me, because I'm not going anywhere. I'm
still going to be selling real estate. I'm not retiring.
Somebody on Facebook they said I was retiring. I'm not retiring.
I ended up buying like three more real estate businesses,
so quite the opposite. I'm not retiring. I'm going to
(33:56):
be continuing down this path for a little while longer.
You can't get rid of me. Kind of like a
little cockroach. I'm just kidding. Speaking of cockroaches, make sure
that you're budgeting for past control around your home. See that?
See how did that? All right? I'm gonna switch gears
just a little bit, and we're gonna be talking about
(34:18):
if your walls could talk, would your walls actually tell
the next home owner that they haven't been cleaning, they
haven't been taking care of this home, They've never let's
see here, they've never had the heating and cooling system
(34:39):
cleaned and checked. Is that what your walls would say
about you and how you've taken care of their home
of the home. So think about that. So when you
are going to sell your home, oftentimes as a realtor,
I will come in and we will do a to
do list. We will make sure that we take care
of this superficial things around the house, the items that
(35:03):
I can see. I don't know your home, I don't
know the history of your home. I can only rely
on you. So it is really important that you know
how your home is running and how you've been taking
care of it on a weekly, monthly, annual basis. So
(35:26):
if you've been really good at taking care of that
home maintenance, the issues that come up in the home,
taking care of them as soon as they happen, then
we're not going to have any problems.
Speaker 1 (35:39):
Right.
Speaker 3 (35:40):
But if you're trying to hide something from me and
hide something from a potential buyer, that could come and
bite you in the butt. And I'm not saying that
to be you know, mean or anything. I'm just telling
you it's better that you be open and honest because
(36:04):
this is an extremely litigious society. We know this, and
so if you are going to hide things, you could
be legally responsible for making repairs even after closing. So
(36:24):
this is this is something that I take extremely seriously,
and it's part of the property disclosure It's part of
the law. As a homeowner. When you sell a home,
you have to disclose issues, hidden issues that I don't
know about your house, but you do now. I've also
(36:46):
seen some things. Neighbors, if they know about issues inside
of your home, they will tell the new owner, and
they will tell the new owner that you knew. Let's
say you have a flood in your basement and you
just did the basics. You did the minimum, you cleaned
it out, you dried it out, but you didn't go
(37:09):
ahead and maybe replace some of the boards that were rotten.
You just painted over it, or you finished the space
and covered it up. Covering up serious issues can cost
you an awful lot of money and pain and heartache.
(37:30):
If a new homeowner finds out about it and finds
out that you knew about it, that's the key. So
when you're filling out that property disclosure form, I'm going
to make sure and tell you how serious it is
that you definitely disclose anything that you know about the home. Now,
(37:51):
sometimes there are issues in the attic or if you
have a crawl space, there are issues in places around
your home that you don't know about, and you find
out about it during the home inspection. Okay, that's okay,
I mean it is it's actually okay, because I found
(38:14):
in one home inspection there was a bird's nest that
was like, it was monstrous. It was the size of
a small car, and birds had been nesting in this
attic for years and years. The homeowner had no idea.
So guess what they had to fix it. They had
(38:36):
to remove all of the bird material. They had to
make sure that all of the nesting material was gone.
They had to make sure that everything was sealed so
that the birds can't get back in. They're gonna have
to find another home. And so that was taken care of.
But the homeowner had no idea, had no clue, was
absolutely flabbergasted when they found out when the pictures came
(38:59):
back from that attic and that was in the attic,
they were absolutely stunned and mortified to a certain extent,
and took care of it right away. But if you
are having property issues and you think you're going to
be smart or sly, I'm going to tell you you're
(39:20):
actually being stupid. And I don't say that again to
be terribly mean. I'm just saying it because it could
cost you more money and more trouble than it's worth.
Be honest, Be honest with your real estate agent. Because
here's one thing, and a lot of people don't understand this.
If you tell me, if you tell me your real
(39:42):
estate agent that there was water in the basement. Now,
maybe it was cleaned up, or maybe it wasn't cleaned up. Whatever,
it's like, Yeah, my septic backed up, or my some
pump backed ups was failing, and so water came in
the basement and you know, we dried it up. It
was not that big a deal. Here's the thing. Better
(40:06):
be safe than sorry. Things like that happen, so you
have to disclose it. If you don't disclose it and
it's an issue that you never took care of properly,
I am obligated by my license law to tell potential buyers.
And you may say, well that you're not working for me,
then yes i am. I'm working to save your behind.
(40:31):
I'm looking to save you from a lawsuit. So your
best bet always because your walls will talk and it
could come back and hurt you. So again, neighbors are nosy.
They know things. You tell them things you don't think
it's a big deal. But then those same neighbors are
(40:52):
going to tell a new homeowner, and if it's something
you don't want a new homeowner to know, maybe you
needed to close it. So when it comes to residential
property disclosures, it's important to provide the buyers with all
of the relevant information about the property. Structural issues, that's
(41:12):
the big one. If you have a crack in your
foundation or your foundation is bowed, and you're like, a
you know what, I'm going to cover up. I'm going
to finish that foundation. I'm going to put a wall
in front of it so nobody can see it. Okay,
that is against the law when it comes to selling
your home, So you must disclose any known structural problems,
(41:36):
foundation issues, roof leaks, plumbing problems, structural issues. That's the
worst case scenario because the first heavy rain, if that
basement just maybe it fails. Maybe you never had water
in the basement, but you knew there was a huge
crack in that foundation and you didn't just close it.
(42:00):
And then rain comes in and you just recently put
up a wall to cover that up. Guess what, you
might have a lawyer knocking on your door and nobody
wants that. Nobody wants that. All right, I am all
wrapped up for today. I want to thank you all
for joining me again. If you miss any of this,
(42:21):
or if you'd like to see the highlights the visuals
of me doing this program, you can go to the
Sloan Sales Homes open House on YouTube. You can go
to my website. We'll be posting snippets of segments, probably
taking out all the uzz and the ums and the
things that make me as my brain is trying to
(42:43):
process things. But I hope that you've enjoyed the show today.
I hope that you always remember me Michelle Sloan at
Sloan Saleshomes dot com. And this is fifty five krs
the talk station
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